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Dynamics 365 Community / Forums / Microsoft Dynamics GP (Archived) / GP 9
Microsoft Dynamics GP (Archived)

GP 9

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Posted on by Community Member Microsoft Employee

We are currently on GP 9 and that is the only version we have had. The sales department has complained from the beginning about the cosmetics of the SOP order and invoice. We did modify the standard reports in Report Writer and the main issue is with notes and wanting blank lines to print between groups of items like they were accustom to prior to GP. The dilemma is whether to have all the reports done in either Crystal or SRSS while still running GP 9 or will there be many changes in GP 10 to the reports. Any and all pros and cons would be appreciated.

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  • Ron Wilson Profile Picture
    Ron Wilson 6,010 on at
    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: GP 9

    Thanks for not taking offense to my "slight exception".  You didnt' get that MVP title for nothing!  I for one am all for folks throwing their products in the mix when it is the appropriate time, which I think this was.  There are so many great ISV's out there and sometimes it is hard to find them...even at Convergence (or maybe especially at Convergence).

    Jean...hopefully this will give you all the info to make your decision.  Again, Barnes and Noble is where I taught myself SSRS and Crystal.  Two books I would recommend would be:

    1. SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services by Wrox

    2. Crystal Reports 2008: The Complete Reference

  • Community Member Profile Picture
    Community Member Microsoft Employee on at
    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: GP 9

    Yes, that  does help. 

  • Victoria Yudin Profile Picture
    Victoria Yudin 22,766 on at
    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: GP 9

    Ron,

    I agree with you completely.  I was trying to be impartial and provide the best advice as opposed to pushing our own product, which currently works only with Crystal.  We are planning on releasing SSRS functionality in the future, but frankly have not had as many requests for it as for Crystal.  If you need something right away, I believe the other products mentioned in this thread above (Accountable and Rockton) already work with SSRS.  

  • Ron Wilson Profile Picture
    Ron Wilson 6,010 on at
    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: GP 9

    I agree with you Victoria with one slight exception (if I may).  I am only aware of applications that allow you to launch Crystal Reports directly from GP.  Do you know of any solutions that allow you to launch SSRS (I wuold love to find one for my use).  If they need to launch the reports directly out of GP then that would be something to consider.

  • Victoria Yudin Profile Picture
    Victoria Yudin 22,766 on at
    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: GP 9

    My 2 cents: if any changes are required because of changes in GP, they will likely be the same, whether you are using Crystal or SSRS.  I would recommend picking the tool that you have the most in-house (or readily available) resources for.  For example, if you have someone in-house that already knows Crystal Reports design really well, but would have to learn SSRS, go for Crystal.  Or if you are going to rely on your GP Partner for help, go with what they recommend based on their knowledge of your setup.

  • Ron Wilson Profile Picture
    Ron Wilson 6,010 on at
    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: GP 9

    I would think they would both be equal.  The basic idea is to write a SQL query against the table in the GP database (you should really query against a view of the GP table...but I typically just query the tables...very very bad practice) to get the data you want to display.  Then Crystal and SSRS are just the "display mechanism" to format/display the data, from the SQL query, the way you want.  Therefore, if GP 10 changes a table structure it would change for the SQL query...not so much the report application. 

    Again, this is why you would rather write all your queries against a view instead of directly against the table.  If you had 10 reports that were all pulling from SOP10100 table and then GP 10 changed something about SOP10100, you would have to change 10 reports.  If all 10 reports were querying against a view, then you change the view once and it affects all 10 reports.

     Does that help?

  • Community Member Profile Picture
    Community Member Microsoft Employee on at
    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: GP 9

    Ron,

    Thanks you very much for your opinion. I need as much information as possible to help make the correct decision. Which require less modificaions when the upgrade from 9 to 10 happens SSRS or Crystal?

    Thanks,

    Jean

  • Ron Wilson Profile Picture
    Ron Wilson 6,010 on at
    Re: Re: Re: Re: GP 9

    Then, in my opinion, you definitely want to steer clear of Report Writer and choose either SSRS or Crystal Reports.  My preference is SSRS because I am used to the Visual Studios environment, but Crystal has been around for a LONG time and is an outstanding product.  If you do not have any experience with either, I would probably go to Barnes and Noble and check out a few books on both report writers.

    To add to the list of tools to let you execute Crystal Reports in GP, there is an offering from Rockton Software http://www.rocktonsoftware.com/products.aspx?p=3.  I have not used it but hear it is pretty good as well.

    I am not sure, however, that this product from Rockton supports SSRS reports in GP.  You would need to check on that, as that would have a big impact on the reporting solution you choose.

  • Community Member Profile Picture
    Community Member Microsoft Employee on at
    Re: Re: Re: GP 9

    The appearance of the reports. When they enter the order they have spaces between groups of items but when transferred to an invoice all the blank spaces are removed when using the invoice from GP.

  • Ron Wilson Profile Picture
    Ron Wilson 6,010 on at
    Re: Re: GP 9

    When you say cosmetics, are you meaning of the reports, or the actual sop entry screens and navigation?

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